1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a windscreen wiper device comprising an elastic, elongated carrier element, as well as an elongated wiper blade of a flexible material, which can be placed in abutment with a windscreen to be wiped, which wiper blade includes opposing longitudinal grooves on its longitudinal sides, in which grooves spaced-apart longitudinal strips of the carrier element are disposed, wherein neighboring ends of said longitudinal strips are interconnected by a respective connecting piece, which windscreen wiper device comprises a connecting device for an oscillating wiper arm, as well as a spoiler. Such a spoiler is also called an “air deflector”.
2. Related Art
Such a windscreen wiper device is generally known. The prior art windscreen wiper device is in particular designed as a “yokeless” wiper device, wherein use is no longer made of several yokes pivotally connected to each other, but wherein the wiper blade is biased by the carrier element, as a result of which it exhibits a specific curvature. The spoiler and the wiper blade of the known windscreen wiper device are made in one piece.
Windscreen wiper devices actually used on cars fitted with windscreens exhibiting some degree of curvature are sometimes subjected to a lifting effect at high speeds, which prevents the windscreen from being wiped correctly. This lifting effect is due to the following aerodynamic phenomenon. Streams of air along the car tend to escape vertically upwards along the axis of the car. Near the sides of the curved windscreen, however, the streams of air tend to pass horizontally along the sides. These streams of air create, mainly in the zones in which the windscreen wiper device meets them perpendicularly, a reduced pressure above the windscreen wiper device and an increased pressure between the windscreen and the windscreen wiper device. The resulting pressure, in spite of the mechanical pressure applied by the arm of the windscreen wiper device, causes the latter to lift away towards the front of the windscreen, thereby deteriorating the wiping pattern at higher driving speeds.
A disadvantage of the known windscreen wiper device is that the spoiler and the wiper blade are made in one piece: every car has its own specific aerodynamic characteristics, so that a specific windshield wiper with an integrated spoiler has to be designed and manufactured for each type of car. Obviously this requires the use of complex machinery, tools, with all the expenses involved. A further drawback is that replacement (because of wear) of the wiper blade automatically implies the replacement of the spoiler.
It is an object of the invention to obviate these disadvantages, in the sense that at minimum cost a windshield wiper device comprising a spoiler is proposed which can be mounted on all windshield wipers of different cars, without the use of complex machinery and additional tools being required. It is noted that the present invention is not restricted to windscreen wiper devices for cars, but that it also relates to windscreen wiper devices for rail coaches and all other (fast) vehicles.